ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. –Attendees from the five partner denominations of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators annual event dined together here Feb. 3 and discussed diversity, media consumption, use of technology and their churches’ recent handling of cultural issues.
A minister from Boston did not violate the Book of Order of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) or her ordination vows when she married two women from her congregation, the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission (GAPJC) has ruled. The wedding took place in Massachusetts – one of a handful of states that has legalized same-gender marriages.
The pastors who on Feb. 2 issued a controversial letter declaring the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) saying the denomination is “deathly ill” and needs to be “radically transformed” have now issued a letter of clarification.
The parsonage (or manse) allowance may soon disappear from ministers’ tax breaks, and the financial implications for clergy will be huge. Church legal expert Richard Hammar reports in the January 2011, edition of Church Law and Tax Report that a California court case threatens to eliminate the parsonage exemption tax break that dates to 1954.
NEW YORK (ENI) — The 19-story granite building on Manhattan’s upper west side, often referred to as the “God Box,” is 50 years old. New York’s Interchurch Center, one of the most visible symbols of Christian ecumenism in the United States, is marking its 50th anniversary as the modern ecumenical movement for Christian unity is celebrating its 100th.
VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Pope Benedict XVI denounced the “vile and murderous” New Year's Day killing of 21 Coptic Christians in Alexandria, Egypt, but was rebuked by Egypt’s top Muslim cleric for an “unacceptable interference in Egypt's affairs.”
A Christian broadcaster Harold Camping says the rapture is coming on May 21. A movement of his followers, loosely connected via broadcasts and Web sites, is purchasing billboards, handing out leaflets on street corners, and spreading the word in the two-thirds world to draw many to the faith before that fateful day arrives.
GENEVA (WCC) — Unity among Chinese Protestants is an important factor in the rapid growth of the church in China, Kan Baoping, the general secretary of the China Christian Council, said during a recent visit to the Ecumenical Centre here.
In the ancient Middle East, about a dozen days after the first Christmas (as tradition numbers the days), the gospel broke down an historic tribal barrier as Persians worshiped the Son of Israel’s God.
